The prior art discloses forced convection furnaces for heating of glass sheets in preparation for processing such as forming, tempering, heat strengthening, annealing, and coating, etc. Such prior art forced convection furnaces for heating glass sheets are disclosed by the U.S. Pat. Nos. of Kenneth R. Kormanyos: 5,669,954; 5,672,191; 5,735,924; 5,762,677; and 5,792,232. In those Kormanyos patents, the glass sheets are conveyed on a roll conveyor during the heating which is performed by lower and upper sets of hot gas distributors that supply pressurized hot gas flows to the lower and upper surfaces of the conveyed glass sheets. An associated lower hot gas distributor is located between each pair of adjacent conveyor rolls, such that the spent quenching gas must flow downwardly between the conveyor rolls and the hot gas distributor. Furthermore, any broken glass that is lodged between the conveyor rolls and the lower hot gas distributors must be removed before commencing further heating of the glass sheets.